Boulevard Maisonneuve is an important arterial in the heart of Downtown

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It serves as connector route between the

Portage Bridge The Portage Bridge (french: Pont du Portage) crosses the Ottawa River just down-river from the Chaudière Bridge, joining the communities of Gatineau, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario. It links Laurier Street and Alexandre-Taché Boulevard in the Hul ...

from

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

to Quebec Autoroutes 5 and 50 as well as

Boulevard Fournier Boulevard Fournier is a main route in the city of Gatineau, Quebec that connects the Gatineau and Hull, Quebec, Hull sectors. It starts as the extension of Boulevard Gréber (Gatineau), Boulevard Greber in the old city of Gatineau and ends at the en ...

towards the Gatineau sector of the city, northern portions of the

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

sector and the northern east suburbs. It also gives access to the

Macdonald-Cartier Bridge The Macdonald-Cartier Bridge (french: Pont Macdonald-Cartier) is a bridge connecting Ottawa, Ontario, to Gatineau, Quebec. The bridge is a 618 m long continuous steel box girder bridge and carries six lanes of traffic. It links King Edward Avenu ...

and the

Alexandra Bridge The Royal Alexandra Interprovincial Bridge, also known as the Alexandra Bridge or Interprovincial Bridge, is a steel truss cantilever bridge spanning the Ottawa River between Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec. In addition to carrying vehicl ...

(via

Boulevard des Allumettières Boulevard des Allumettières (formerly called Boulevard Saint-Laurent) is a major 13.7 km arterial road in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, that connects Aylmer and Hull sectors of the city running from Eardley Road to the Alexandra Bridge towards ...

formerly Boulevard Saint-Laurent).

History

The construction of this road was a source of controversy in the 1960s and 1970s. The entire area where Boulevard Maisonneuve is now located was a residential area with a large number of houses that were built early in the 20th century. At that time, there was an urgent need for a main road to be built because the Quebec side of the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

was growing very rapidly and more commuters were driving from the suburbs towards downtown Hull. During the 1970s, several federal government offices buildings such as

Place du Portage 250px, The Place du Portage complex facing the Ottawa River. 250px, The Place du Portage model on display in the main lobby 2014 Place du Portage is a large office complex in the Hull sector of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, situated along Boulevard ...

, Place du Centre, the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

and the Congress Centre were built in the downtown area of what was then the City of Hull. In addition, numerous skyscrapers were built in downtown Ottawa increasing the amount of commuter traffic towards central Ottawa from both sides of the river. The controversial decision was then made to demolish a long line of houses in order to make room for the new arterial boulevard, thus making commuter travel towards Ottawa much easier. At the same time the

was built at the southern end of Maisonneuve towards Wellington Street and the

Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, formerly the Ottawa River Parkway, is a four-lane scenic parkway along the Ottawa River in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Carling Avenue near Connaught Avenue, to Booth Street at the Canadian War Museum ...

in Ottawa.

Today

Current Boulevard

Boulevard Maisonneuve is a 6-lane road from

Rue Laurier Rue Laurier (''Laurier Street'') is a main street located in the heart of the City of Gatineau, Quebec. It starts at Rue Eddy and ends at Rue Dussault. The street's main feature includes the Canadian Museum of Civilization, one of Gatineau's ...

to Boulevard Sacre-Coeur where it splits with

and Autoroute 5 towards Ottawa. South of

it becomes the

, part of the National Capital Region's

Confederation Boulevard Confederation Boulevard (french: Boulevard de la Confédération) is a "ceremonial and discovery route" in Canada's National Capital Region, running through Parliament Hill and encompassing downtown areas in Ottawa and Gatineau. Some of Canada' ...

. During rush hours, one lane is reserved for

STO STO may refer to: Businesses and organizations Government * Science & Technology Organization, a NATO organization * ''Service du travail obligatoire'', French men & women between certain ages deported to Germany during WWII to work as slave la ...

and

OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, conventional ...

buses, taxis and

carpooling Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more ...

(with at least 3 people per vehicle). The speed limit is 50 km/h but traffic flow during off-peak hours is generally much faster.

Recent road and condominium projects

Today, the City of Gatineau along with the

National Capital Commission The National Capital Commission (NCC; french: Commission de la capitale nationale, CCN) is the Crown corporation responsible for development, urban planning, and conservation in Canada's Capital Region (Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec), i ...

have modernized the road between Highway 5 and des Allumettières. They have already made some significant

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

changes on the road surface with wider

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

s and numerous planters, new

traffic light Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traf ...

s and new benches. At the same time, the city is replacing several older houses with new

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

projects to give the road a much more modern look. The latest update was a project to construct new units at the corner of Boulevard des Allumettières. These will replace two or three very old units nearby. The City tries not to mix different types of units (which means not mixing early 20th century houses with more modern ones); however, this may be only a tactic to hide the poorer areas of the city, since the downtown area is considered to be the poorest in all of Gatineau. However, there are still numerous old structures in rough shape that are located along the eastern side of the route.

History

Today

Current Boulevard

Recent road and condominium projects

See also